Alternate Salt
by cornholio4
Summary: A story where Marinette faced an adventure dealing with alternate Earth counterparts of herself; one comes to her Earth but her best friend hitches a ride. This best friend has a plot which causes the downfall of the main Earth's Lila and her lies.
1. Chapter 1

Marinette had been finding it hard to ignore that almost everyone in her class were falling over in excitement over the tall tales that Lila had been spouting. Every attempt by her to point out the lies was just met with alienation from the classmates. Plus there was Lila swearing that she will turn everyone against her.

Only ones not swayed were Chloe due to jealous over Lila's attention and Adrien who thought that they should just leave it.

Well she was able to handle the Ladybug duties but recently she had to deal with the strangest adventure yet and that was saying something:

Early in the morning she learnt of a new Akuma from her text so she had transformed. However before she could go anywhere she was sucked into a portal that mysteriously appeared on her floor. It had taken her to a strange black void which was populated by just as confused versions of her.

Each of them was in a different outfit and costume but some looked identical and there were several identical looking Ladybugs. There were mutterings and whispers but then came a giant head who said this was a pocket dimension outside the multiverse and the being was an omnipotent watcher of the Multiverse called the Viewer.

Each of them was Marinette from a different universe and they were all summoned to save the multiverse from a villainous force called the Anti Viewer. To prove they were all alternate versions of the same person; practically all of them freaked out by the information and that there was an actual Multiverse out there.

Well after they had all calmed down; they had managed to work together and defeat the Anti Viewer.

Through talking and working together she got to know each of the different versions of herself from the different universes.

there was a Marinette who instead of the Ladybug Miraculous had one of the others that she had seen in Master Fu's case. Some even dual wielded and there were superheroes version of her without a Miraculous.

There was a Marinette who got the powers of Majestia and took up the mantle when Majestia died in battle. Alya would love to meet that one.

She got to know many of them; some of them dated their world's Adrien to her glee but others dated their versions of her classmates. Some had Luka as their boyfriend while a few had Max.

However what surprised her was a Ladybug who acted as a freedom fighter in a world where the Nazis won World War II (not a lot of o people wanted to know details) but hearing how everyone else's worlds turned out she became more determined to continue fighting back against the regime on hr world. She actually had her world's Hawk Moth as her mentor who Heroized brave citizens into Superheroes.

She got to know Black Feline; a version of her with the Cat Miraculous. She got to know this one as she was her partner in the group they were all split up in to cover different missions. She had been surprised to hear that her parents were still alive in her world. To her horror she learned they had died in a fire when she was younger in her world and gave her all the sympathies.

She took it in stride and they got to talk and Black Feline was stunned to hear her troubles with Lila. She explained the details and Black Feline jsut kept listening but when Marinette talked about Adrien and how nice he is; Black Feline surprised her by joking she actually finds it hard to believe he could be nice to her.

Well afterwards they were all given devices to allow them to travel to other worlds when their teamwork would be needed again. They returned and were told that not a minute had passed in their world due to the pocket dimension.

It was weird but she managed to get over it, especially when she remembered there was still an Akuma to fight.

* * *

In another Earth in her home of the Agreste Mansion; Marinette Dupain-Cheng-Agreste was looking at the latest design she had made. She pinned it up on her design board with a satisfied smile. Another design to show off to her foster father Gabriel Agreste.

She sighed at the framed photo of her with Gabriel; Emile and Adrien which was next to the last photo that had been taken of her with her biological parents

Losing her parents at the age she was the hardest and worst time of her life; she was thankful when the Agreste family took her parent. Gabriel and Emile were very welcoming if her and told them that she should not be compelled to call them Mum or Dad and would not be trying to replace her parents.

She was allowed to work in the kitchens to try the recipes that they had taught her; plus they were impressed with her talent and interest in design.

Adrien however never seemed to like her; he always seemed to be jealous of the attention she got from her talent.

When Emile disappeared; Marinette who already lost 1 mother grieved with Gabriel and wanted to bond with Adrien over their loss but he just snapped and told her to go away.

She had tears in her eyes but he just told her to leave her alone.

She just sighed at the thought and laughed at the sight of Plagg trying to break his record of how much Camberte cheese he could fit in his mouth. She had a day off from school and decided to call one of the alternate Marinette's and see how they were doing.

She decided to call one of them with the Ladybug Miraculous...

* * *

Walking up to the Agreste Mansion; Lila Rossi was welcomed in and went to the room to go see her best friend Marinette. She had moved into Paris and was afraid of how to make friends. At her old schools she tried to become popular with little lies but she got made fun of when her lies got exposed so she didn't want to try again.

However when she was lonely on her first day at school she actually found Marinette wanting to be nice to her. She told her she was scared of making friends since it didn't work out at her old schools but Marinette told if she wanted she could be her friends.

She was stunned and accepted it; she knew Marinette as the talented foster daughter of Gabriel Agreste and was all set to be his successor. She also turned out to be the nicest sweetest most clumsily adorable girl ever.

However she got suspicious when she made surprise disappearances when there were Akuma attacks and when the heroes Ladybug and Black Feline appeared. She managed to catch her in the act of transforming back and promised not to say anything.

She helped cover for Marinette when there were Akuma attacks and found Plagg quite amusing.

She was even told of the Crisis of Infinite Marinettes as she called it and the different versions of her she had met. She was surprised at the Ladybug one who was subtly being bullied and threatened by her Lila!

She was given details of the lies and stories she had made and it made Lila sick and want to punch herself in the mirror.

She walked up the stairs and glared past pretty boy model Adrien; she felt that Marinette gave too much attention to trying to be a good sister to the jealous jerk who didn't seem to want to do with her and she was not shy in letting Marinette know that. She insisted he jsut needed time.

Honestly how did dealing with Chloe bring out her petty side but dealing with her stupid foster brother was different; how patient was she in dealing with him?

She got to the room and saw Marinette talk to her device and it let out a message from the Ladybug Marinette saying she can't talk as there is an Akuma.

She then was about to go in and say hi to her best friend when Plagg suggested she go to visit Ladybug Marinette in her Earth. Marinette was not sure but Plagg said it could help the other one with her secret identity if she was seen when Ladybug is in action.

She sighed and decided to give it a try and then opened up the portal; Marinette freaked out when she saw a mannequin accident fell over and went to fix it.

Lila got a wicked grin as she got an idea; Marinette will probably kill her for this later but she felt it was worth it to help the other Marinette. It didn't matter if it wasn't her Marinette; she deserved better than dealing with the manipulative bully who shared her face, name and DNA.

She then sneaked in as Marinette was distracted bringing up the mannequin. she then jumped through the portal quickly.

She ended up at the school which looked close to the one she went through; she saw her target humming to herself with a wicked smile which made her mad. They were the only ones in the hall at the moment; probably everyone going to saftey over the latest Akuma.

The other Lila had her back turned and was about to walk past the open janitor's closet with the keys still there. She smirked to herself thinking this will be easier than she thought...


	2. Chapter 2

After that little bit of clumsiness Marinette managed to go through the portal and quietly told Plagg to go hide. She then looked around and saw the familiar surroundings of the school and then went over to find anyone that the Ladybug Marinette would know.

She looked up and noticed above the stairs was the other Marinette sneaking off into a classroom; to transform of course. She was tempted to transform herself but Chat Noir would take care of it and it would raise some unwanted questions about why there was another Cat user.

She then noticed on the other side were Nino, Alix, Mylene and Ivan who looked like they were going to hide but then heard loud music turned up to the volume and Marinette heard it too. "Just wanted to get your attention Marinette." Said a voice and Marinette saw a smirking Lila with her phone playing the music which she shut off. Marinette glared at her and not wanting to deal with the lying bully counterpart of her best friend; went to walk away then felt Lila grabbing her arm.

"You are not going anywhere; I want to make it clear I am not done with letting you get in my way of controlling the school. It's not like you are more than a minor nuisance anyway; a few tall tales and those idiots in our class are willing to foolishly be angry at their little everyday Ladybug. I mean even I am surprised at how much they fell for my claims of having saved the kitten of a rockstar who doesn't like cats and even the so called genius thought that napkins were a weapon." Lila told her tauntingly and Marinette raised an eyebrow.

While her lies and stories were too huge to be taken seriously; surely she should be smart enough not to do this openly and in public; was she trying to be overheard and caught or something?

Marinette then noticed a necklace on her neck; does this Lila have the same one that she had gotten her Lila for her birthday. When Lila noticed what she was looking at; she then had a panic look as she then hide her necklace away.

Marinette realised that this was her Lila.

"_Sorry Marinette; I was about to come visit you when I overheard your plan and I sneaked in through the portal while you were cleaning up... Sorry about this and catching your arm like this..._" Lila apologised to her in a whisper and Marinette shook her head. They then saw the front door open and then came in Ladybug and Chat Noir fighting some sort of chef Akuma.

"_Push me Lila..._" Marinette whispered to her and Lila was taken aback; "_Trust me Lila; I can take it..._" Marinette whispered to her again and Lila hesitantly complied pushing her and Marinette made a big show of falling down.

Chat Noir noticed this and went to pick up Marinette and she was taken to the stairs where she was asked if she was alright; Marinette nodded feeling weird to see the one who had her Miraculous in this Earth. She then waved to Ladybug who was looking at her direction weirdly before going back to face the Akuma.

Alya was following them getting footage for the Ladyblog but she stopped filming when she saw Lila push Marinette and then went to confront Lila. "Do I really need to explain myself to you; I just felt that I was growing bored of pretending to be nice to the stupid... stupid... bi... Designer idiot..." Lila told her and Marinette laughed that Lila actually struggled to insult her but it seemed that Alya didn't notice. "Why do you care; you should be more focused on getting footage for your stupid tabloid website; the footage is all you have since you never thought to double check anything I told you." Lila said making a big show of storming off.

Soon Marinette was being enveloped by Alya, Ivan, Mylene, Alix and Alix who came over and apologised to her about what happened and they couldn't beleive they were fooled by Lila like that. Then Ladybug came over having dealt with and told them "I just want to get a private word with Marinette please; make sure she is alright."They were then gave them space and went outside with them starting to muttering about if Marinette was actually secret pals with Ladybug.

Ladybug looked at Marinette quizzically and Marinette just showed her finger with her Ring on it conforming who she was. "Sorry, Plagg suggested I come over and give you a little help with your secret identity; if people saw Marinette the same time Ladybug was fighting an Akuma... However someone overheard me and sneaked through my portal." Marinette told her and then came Lila smiling at them sweetly to Ladybug's shock.

"Don't worry, I was just letting my other self out of the closet; don't think she can lie her way around your classmates now." Lila told Ladybug to her surprise. "I'm Marinette's best friend and she told me everything; I saw her transforming once and I helped her maintain her secret." Lila explained to her putting her elbow on Marinette's shoulder and Ladybug was surprise to say the least.

Then she said goodbye to them as Marinette got up a portal and they both went through it. Ladybug then had her earrings beep as she transformed back into Marinette. She knew the rest of her day would be interesting to say the least...


	3. Chapter 3

The Ladybug Marinette was quite happy with how the rest of the day went; the Akuma had been Bon Appetite who was a cooking student who finally had enough of no one liking his recipes. Alya, Nino, Alix, Ivan and Mylene were quick to continue to apologise to her but Marinette was just glad her troubles with Lila seemed to be over now.

They met with the rest of their classmates and told them of what they heard and saw to their quite shock and Alya even provided the video she had been filming of the Akuma fight which caught 'Lila' shoving Marinette and it kept rolling as Alya confronted her.

Word would quickly spread throughout the school.

The Lila of this world had gone with them and found no friendly face among them. They confronted her about the insults and lies and Lila was trying to explain. "That couldn't have been me that you saw; someone locked me in a closet..." Lila told them but their faces conveyed their disbelief. "It must be the work of the Akuma..." Lila tried to say but Alya laughed it off.

"The Akuma had the power to bring food to life so how could he have made a version of you to confront Marinette like that? I can now see in retrospect how pitiful your lies are." Alya told her as harsh as she can and Lila kept saying it wasn't her. "So you didn't threaten Marinette and you didn't make up the stories you told us before?" Alya asked and Lila stammered unable to come up with a response due to the state she was in.

Practically all their classmates were now giving Lila the cold shoulder with her reputation in school now ruined except for Adrien who looked like she felt sorry for Lila. Marinette allowed herself to be a little petty and whispered to Tikki "looks like Lila is now the girl who cried wolf."

Tikki giggled; having been well aware of the story.

Later she had decided to make some Macaroons as a present to her alternate self and her Lila. When she was done she opened up the portal and went through.

She was stunned at the big room she was in and looked outside the window after saying hello to her alternate counterpart and Lila. She asked if this was Agreste Manor and had her mouth wide open when she learned that Gabriel Agreste was her foster father in this Earth.

She then asked if Adrien was like the best foster brother ever but her alternate self looked nervous and Lila was about to go into a tirade but Plagg beat her to it:

"You're kidding right? The model kid hates Marinette's guts; probably because Marinette is the talented designer and the idiot hates she gets so much praise from the old man! He actually has the nerve to insult the smell of my Camberte when he comes into the room and you should see his face whenever he has to model one of Marinette's Designs..."

Marinette was taken aback while her alternate self shut Plagg up but Lila looked like she agreed with every word.

Both Marinettes and Lila laughed as they began talking to eachother and Marinette watched as her alternate self marvelled at the Macaroons. She said it had been a long time since she tasted a recipe of her parents which made Marinette feel sorry and comforted her along with Lila.

When Marinette asked her alternate self if she liked someone Lila laughed and alternate Marinette was red in the face. Plagg smirked as he was pointing to a framed photo of Kagami on her desk to which surprised Marinette.

Still things would be better now; and it would be thanks to an alternate version of her and a lying manipulative bully.


End file.
